


Resist

by chxrrycake



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, F/M, POV Alternating, POV Ben Solo, POV Rey (Star Wars), Redeemed Ben Solo, Sexual Tension, Spies & Secret Agents, men in black inspired
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:47:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25786846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chxrrycake/pseuds/chxrrycake
Summary: “You’re here because we suspect you interacted with an intergalactic criminal five years ago. Do you recognise,” he flicked through the pile of papers on his lap, “This man?”Her brows moved a fraction. The rest of her face remained composed. “No.”“Yes, you do.” Ben said.“No, I don’t,” she said. “And even if I did pass by him once, which I didn’t, I wouldn’t remember it now. I was eighteen.”“You’re lying.”--Ben works for the most important secret service you've never heard of: R.E.B.L. He's an intergalactic lawkeeper, if you will. He's been looking for Rey for five years, since she talked to one of the most dangerous fugitives in the known universe - but she can't remember what he needs her to.Spy shenanigans ensue.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	Resist

Rey’s toast was severely burnt. 

She could feel it breaking apart between her teeth as she ran down the stairs and onto the subway, sending bitter crumbs onto her blouse - she brushed them to the floor with a muttered apology to the carriage as the doors closed. According to her phone, it was 8:49; too late to make it to work on time, but not too late to prevent her boss from noticing that.

**_REY_ **  
_heyyyyghdhdf can you stall holdo?? please???_  
_just so she doesn’t reach my desk for morning rounds before i arrive_  
_late again_

**_JYN_ **  
_omg_  
_this is the THIRD TIME in two months I honestly think you have a problem ?????_

**_REY_ **  
_i know im sorry!!! i promise ill make it up to you asap :(_

**_JYN_ **  
_okkkkk fine_  
_you know she’s going to nag me about that report right_  
_you owe me a dinner_  
_AND a promise to never be late to work again_

**_REY_ **  
_hmm_  
_ok ok i’ll buy us dinner one day. no definite response on the second one._  
_will be arriving soon!_

____

__

__The subway doors slid open and let a flood of people out as she tucked her phone in her pocket. Where there once hadn’t been enough room to swing a cat, let alone a small mouse, there was now a completely empty carriage save for a man in a suit. The rush of fresh air that came after all the train’s passengers departed at Central Chandrila Station was the best part of her commute, even if she only got to enjoy it for one stop. The doors closed with a soft click and the train sped off again, taking Rey and the man with it._ _

__She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye._ _

__Everything about the man was slightly off. His hair, a fraction too long for any normal office standards, framed a pair of sunglasses on his face (why was he wearing sunglasses in the train, at 9-ish AM?, she wondered), and his too-tall body was suited in a crisp black-and-white three piece. She must have been looking at him fairly conspicuously, though, because the man immediately turned to her and affixed a stare that was obvious even through his Ray-Bans. Rey found her shoes very interesting all of a sudden, a hot blush rising on her cheeks. It was with great relief that she heard the train’s automated voice announcing that the next stop was Junari Street, and even greater relief that she made to step off the train. The train pulled up to the station, the brakes letting out a soft squeak as they grinded to a halt._ _

__The doors didn’t open._ _

__Rey stepped back, then stepped forward. The doors refused to move. She attempted to check her phone for the time. It didn’t turn on. She clicked the power button again - still no sign of life from the screen. The doors were still stationary. She turned to the man who had caught her staring._ _

__“Do they realise there are still passengers on this train?” she asked._ _

__He didn’t respond._ _

__“I mean, I don’t know about you, but I have to get to work in,” she clicked her phone again, to no effect, “maybe 2 minutes and this is the last stop on the City Circuit Line and I really don’t want to be trapped in a train for 15 minutes while my boss wonders where I am.”_ _

__Maybe Jyn could give Holdo an explanation - tell her Rey fell down a pothole or something. She hoped that would prove a more believable excuse than her train malfunctioning, anyway. She made to text her again, then huffed in irritation when her phone refused to turn on._ _

__“Phone not working?” a voice said._ _

__It was the man with the sunglasses and suit, the one who’d caught her staring. He got up from his seat and strode over to her, fishing a device that looked like a combination lock from his pocket. As he got closer, she saw that it wasn’t a lock, but rather a two-dialed metal contraption that seemed to glow with a greenish-yellow light. “T-P-A-D,” he said, “Time Perception Alteration Device.”_ _

__“Teepad?”_ _

__“T-P-A-D. Your phone won’t work and the doors won’t open because I’ve slowed down time, in a way. For just the two of us - or at least, anyone within a radius of two yards.”_ _

__He held out the lock-looking thing to her. The dial within was inscribed with the words 1SEC/MIN, 6SEC/MIN, 30SEC/MIN and 60SEC/MIN. The one on the outside said 2YD, 10YD, 50YD, 500YD and 1760YD. A notch at the top of both dials indicated that the device was running at one second per minute - whatever that meant - and with a radius of two yards, like the man had said._ _

__“One second per minute means time is about 60 times slower to us than it is in reality,” he said, as if reading her mind. When she said nothing, he continued, “I need to ask you about something.”_ _

__Rose had warned her about this - a reasonably attractive and well-dressed stranger ‘asking you something’ would, according to her, almost always end in abduction. It didn’t help that he was prattling on about time and seconds and reality like a lunatic. Rey slipped a hand into her pocket for the house keys, slotting them between her fingers to prepare for self-defense._ _

__“No, no, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”_ _

__Was her fear really that obvious?_ _

__“Don’t worry. I promise, all I need is just for you to,” he pulled something that looked like a USB out of his pocket and held it up to her, “look right here.” Her eyes were shifting to the device before she could help it. It was curious; a short stick of metal with a lens of some kind at the end, a lens that was emitting a glaring white light that made her skull ring with all kinds of vibrations -_ _

__The last thing she felt before losing consciousness was a pair of strong hands catching her as she crumpled to the ground, and the man’s voice saying, “We’re on our way there.”_ _

__\--_ _

__Ben had started the morning like he did most others - with a long black coffee, a quiet drive to work and a meeting with his mother._ _

__“Ben,” she began, gesturing for him to take a seat opposite her, “How’s the D’Vork case going?”_ _

__“All extraterrestrial parties handled, imported plants quarantined to reduce risk of malignant diseases.”_ _

__“Good.”_ _

__Leia tapped something on her computer, no doubt marking the issue as resolved on her spreadsheet, the turned to him. “And how are you doing, kid?”_ _

__“Same as always. How’s Dad doing?”_ _

__She waved a hand in dismissal. “Dad’s Dad, you know. He took the dogs down for a fishing trip. See?” His mother pulled up a photo on her phone - it was his father taking a (blurry) selfie by Lake Andrasha as the family’s two dogs, Artoo and Threepio, chased each other around him._ _

__“He misses you, you know,” she said softly, putting the phone away. Ben thought the room suddenly felt a good few degrees cooler._ _

__“What’s up for me next?” he said, swallowing the lump that had risen in his throat._ _

__Leia cleared her throat and raised her eyebrows. “A new development in the F.O. case. Witness 2187 has resurfaced on our radars and we need you to go bring her back here. Don’t let her get away. Go to Kaydel, talk to her about where to find the kid.” He turned on his heel with a mock two-finger salute and shut the door on his way out._ _

__Kaydel had a stick of gum halfway to her mouth when he arrived at her desk, which she hid under his admonishing stare. “You know you’re not meant to be eating that in here,” he said, taking a seat next to her, “Those Annelids can’t afford to get stuck in any more of your chewed gum.”_ _

__“Helps me focus. What can I get you, big man?”_ _

__“I need the location and projected movements of Witness 2187.”_ _

__It was not 10 minutes later that he found himself on a subway packed with office workers, courtesy of the headquarter’s SuperSpeeders. He’d discarded the glorified motorbike by the subway entrance and taken a seat on the train, where the tablet told him that Witness 2187 was 10 yards away and approaching quickly. A girl squeezed her way through the subway doors at the same time that his tablet chimed softly. Must be her, then._ _

__He couldn’t help but feel bad when he pulled out the Syncopizer - he never felt good using it, per se, but there was something even more guilt-inducing about it when the girl he now carried in his arms had been ready for self-defense just seconds before. From there, it was easy enough to get her back to headquarters and into a recuperation chair, where small robots flitted about taking her vitals and keeping her comfortable._ _

__When she awoke, blinking at the harsh light of the med centre, Ben took note of her eyes. No dilation or unusual colours that pointed to an extraterrestrial in disguise - just the hazelly browns and greens of a human. They raked over him several times, no doubt taking in all 6-ish feet of him, then settled on his face._ _

__“Did you abduct me?” she croaked._ _

__He’d never been asked that before. _Where am I?_ , maybe, or _How did I get here?_ \- but never anything about abduction. “No,” he said shortly, “I brought you in for questioning about something you witnessed five years ago.”_ _

__“And where are we?”_ _

__“R.E.B.L. headquarters.”_ _

__The girl looked down to her wrists, cuffed by her sides. “You mind letting me go?”_ _

__Ben shook his head. “Sorry, security procedures. You have no idea how much of a threat you pose right now.”_ _

__“Threat?” she said, “What kind of people do you bring in here? I’m not a criminal, if that’s what you’re questioning me about. Doesn’t this count as kidnapping or something? A private investigator holding a civilian hostage?”_ _

__“First, you’re not a hostage.”_ _

__At this, the girl nodded her head very pointedly at the metal around her wrists._ _

__“You’re technically not a hostage. Second, we’re not a P.I. company. R.E.B.L is… well, the best way I can describe it is a sort of branch of the government. Reconnaissance for Extraterrestrial and other Backdoor Legislation. We keep laws for whatever species lie out there in the galaxy.”_ _

__He could practically see the information processing in her brain as she sat silent for a moment, brow working. “Species,” she said, less a question than a statement, “As in, I don’t know, aliens or something?”_ _

__“I guess. They don’t like being called aliens - it implies humans are the galaxy’s dominant species. We say extraterrestrials to play it safe.”_ _

__“O...kay. Well, assuming I’m not in some kind of coma or fever-induced lucid dream, what did you take me in for? What could have possibly happened five years ago that’s so interesting to you now?” Her body language was carefully impassive, Ben noticed, save for a thumb rubbing anxiously along the inside of her palm and the set of her jaw. Interesting._ _

__“You were very hard to track down in those five years, you know. It’s not that we suddenly gained interest in you now. We were looking for you all along.”_ _

__The girl opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again. “By my own design. I’m glad to see it worked.”_ _

__He had no idea how to respond to that, nor the way her eyes flicked past his face to the door behind him. “You’re here because we suspect you interacted with an intergalactic criminal five years ago. Do you recognise,” he flicked through the pile of papers on his lap, “This man?”_ _

__Her brows moved a fraction. The rest of her face remained composed. “No.”_ _

__“Yes, you do.” Ben said._ _

__“No, I don’t,” she said. “And even if I did pass by him once, which I didn’t, I wouldn’t remember it now. I was eighteen.”_ _

__“You’re lying.”  
“I’m not.”_ _

__“We seriously spent five years trying to find you in order to hear that you can’t tell us anything about this man?”_ _

__“You did. Too bad it was a bust. Can I go to work now?”_ _

__Ben was at a loss for words. “Do you know what,” he said, “I’ll let you go in a minute. Let me just duck out.”_ _

__\--_ _

__Rey blinked one moment and the room was empty. She blinked again and there was the man from before, with a considerably shorter and older woman next to him. They looked so very much alike that, for a moment, she wondered if they were related._ _

__The woman moved to sit in front of her._ _

__“Rey,” she smiled, holding out a weathered hand, “Leia Organa, Director of R.E.B.L. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about the man Ben showed you earlier?”_ _

__So that was the man’s name. Ben. It seemed the kind of name to mold to all his sharp suit edges and soft curves of hair, cloaking him in a layer of regality that seemed impossible for a man of his gangly stature._ _

__Leia Organa was still looking at her. “Oh. Yes, sure.” Rey said, snapping back into reality._ _

__“Alright, then,” Leia began, smiling. “You were living at 14 Sanding Street in 2015, weren’t you?”_ _

__How had they known that? “Yes,” she said, her throat feeling very dry._ _

__“And did you visit the movie theatre down the street on the 15th of April to watch Pitch Perfect 2?”_ _

__Ben was scrutinising her now, a hint of amusement playing on his features. Either she would have to lie to this woman, or own up to the fact that she paid to watch one of the Pitch Perfect movies._ _

__“I...think so.” she murmured._ _

__“And when you came out of the cinema, did you pass by this man?” Leia held up the photo from before, the one of the man with the wrinkled and lopsided face._ _

__“I really don’t remember. I mean, it was 2015, and now it’s what, 2020? I don’t remember a stranger I passed five years ago.”_ _

__“But, see, I think you do,” Leia said, “I think you might remember something about him that we need to know.”_ _

__At this point, Rey didn’t even know what she did and didn’t remember about the man. He had been tall, absurdly so, and skeletal; when he’d taken off his sunglasses to meet her gaze, the watery blue of his eyes shone with a glassy brightness. She didn’t remember what he’d said to her, or the voice in which he spoke - but she remembered the way a shiver had crawled up her arms when he left her on a hot April day._ _

__“I can promise you I don’t,” she said finally. “Really. I mean, he might look familiar or something, but I’m absolutely sure I don’t know who he is or what he does or what he said to me.”_ _

__Leia smiled, not unkindly, and tilted her head. “He said something to you?”_ _

__Rey shut her eyes hard. Of course she had to give herself away with a slip of the tongue. “No. Yes. Look, I do recognise him. I saw him outside the cinema, and he talked to me, but I’m not lying when I say that I don’t remember what he said to me. I’m sorry, you seem like nice people and all, but I… it’s like the whole conversation is blurred out or something. I don’t remember anything about it at all.”_ _

__Ben looked at Leia, who half-shrugged back at him. “She’s not lying, Ben. Either you find someone else who’s interacted with Snoke in the last five years - someone who’s _not_ one of his henchmen - or you find a way to jog her memory.”_ _

__“Snoke?” Rey frowned. “His name is Snoke?”_ _

__“Mm. That help at all?” Ben said, looking up from the stack of papers he’d been shuffling._ _

__“I think. I don’t know. He might have mentioned his name to me, or not. I’m sorry, do you know why I can’t remember anything? And, by the way, if he wiped my memory then why bother talking to me in the first place?”_ _

__The two exchanged glances. “We don’t know, exactly,” Leia sighed. “Could be a medical thing, or Snoke might have had some other intentions. For all we know, you might get your memories back in a couple of days, maybe hours.” Ben mouthed something to Leia that looked like _Pow?_ , to which she nodded. “Tag along with Ben,” she continued. “He can help you remember something.”_ _

__\--_ _

__“So,” Rey started, striding double-time to keep up with Ben, “Why exactly do you need me to come along with you?”_ _

__He rounded a corner. Behind him, she cursed under her breath and scurried to catch up._ _

__“Couple of reasons. One, everybody’s busy with cases today and you are most definitely not allowed to stay in this building alone with no supervision. Two, you heard what Leia said in there. Your memories could literally come back at any time, regardless of whether or not they have in the last five years, and that’s too big of a liability to leave unchecked. Three… well, pretty girls always help soften Poe up. I’ve found he likes them even more in suits.”_ _

__On cue, the double doors in front of them swung open and Rey’s eyes widened in the golden light._ _

__“What is this?” she breathed._ _

__“It doesn’t really have a name, but everyone at R.E.B.L. knows where it is and what it does. We’re here to get you outfitted.”_ _

__They stepped forward into the room, Rey’s hand reaching out to graze one of the six suit cuts that hung on the wall. He slapped it away before she could feel it, and was met with an indignant stare. “You don’t want to touch that,” he said simply. They kept walking, past the spiral staircase that her eyes followed to the next level and the room of wigs in which he swore her footsteps accelerated a little._ _

__Rey nearly bumped into him when they stopped in front of a small gold photo booth. “You need to, uh, take your clothes off and step in.”_ _

__He was met with a stare of disbelief._ _

__“For the measurements,” he elaborated. “So it can tailor you the perfect suit. It’s okay, I can… I’m going to turn around.” He started turning, then spun back around. “Oh! And-”_ _

__Rey had both hands at the second button of her blouse, exposing a small triangle of skin. When his eyes met hers, she fumbled to rebutton her shirt as he fumbled in his pockets for his ID card. “Um, this is for you to use inside the booth,” he muttered, keeping his gaze on his shoes as he held it out to her, “Won’t work without company-approved proof of identity.” He turned back, pressing a hand to his flaming cheek as a chime sounded to signal she had entered the booth._ _

__“Ben Solo,” an automated voice said, “Your measurements are now: 5 feet and 6 inches. Is this correct?”_ _

__“Just press yes,” he called out, “I can always go back and change them.”_ _

__A beep sounded from the booth, then a whoosh of air as Rey stepped out behind him._ _

__“You can turn around,” she said, “I’ve got the suit on.”_ _

__She looked unexpectedly good in it._ _

__“Okay, then,” he said abruptly, turning on his heel, “Let’s go get your memories back.”_ _


End file.
